[Sponsored]Last year, under the theme of “Cyberia,” the Microwave International New Media Arts Festival team presented a series of media artworks, performances and programmes redefining the notion of “live.”

Organisers questioned the concept of “live,” how people interact with social media, live-streaming platforms, and what happens when technology grants everyone a right to broadcast in real-time. The experience gave audiences an opportunity to launch this concept into our daily lives. So, what’s next?

Photo: Microwave Festival.

We know that technology has changed the way we live, behave and believe. Today, we have Uber, Airbnb and couchsurfing. We can place complete trust in a stranger through the use of an app. And then we have blockchain technology, the speedy development of artificial intelligence and other world-changing technology – all of which have changed the way we live, behave and believe.

Microwave Festival 2018‘s main exhibition will be held at Hong Kong City Hall from this Friday. “Much Ado About Everything” showcases a series of artworks, ranging from artificial intelligence, data visualisation, immersive media, machine learning, blockchain technology, 3D printing and more. The exhibition aims to create an immersive experience of technology and art navigation.

Another festival highlight is a non-traditional conference called “Unconference,” which will be held at the Run Run Shaw Creative Media Centre at the City University of Hong Kong in Kowloon Tong, on Saturday, from 2pm to 5.30pm. The event focuses on the use of blockchain technology to change the world. It features an international line-up where an artist, specialist and film practitioner will offer presentations on this cutting-edge topic. Speakers include Maurice Benayoun (France), Tobias Klein (Germany), Li Shih-Chieh (Taiwan), Patrice Poujol (France), Annie Zhang (Hong Kong), SingularDTV’s Jack Cheng and Ho Fung (Hong Kong).

There will also be a Project Room Exhibition on VR and extended reality, held at openground from November 1 to 11, open 12pm to 7pm.

I AM/WERE HERE/THERE (2018) is an interactive virtual reality installation by XRT (Hong Kong), which will be exhibited at the Project Room of Microwave 2018. Photo: Microwave International New Media Arts Festival.

The festival will consist of a series of programmes, including a grand opening, a project room exhibition, artist symposium, blockchain workshop, screening programmes and more.

The “Recognition” (2016) project from Fabrica will be showcased at the main exhibition.

“Recognition,” the winner of IK Prize 2016 for digital innovation, is an artificial intelligence program that matches up-to-the-minute photojournalism works with art from the British Tate collection.

Olivier Ratsi (France) will present his latest work “Continuum” (2018), which is developed from his previous work “Onion Skin” (2016). Olivier’s work aims to simulate a three-dimensional immaterial space through the use of light on the walls of a room, manipulating space and its architectural structure.

Using various devices, geometric structures are projected onto different architectural spaces with the aim of simulating immaterial three-dimensional spaces. Depending on the project, the resulting immaterial space can provide a virtual extension of space, or a means of perturbing the existing space.

The 2018 Microwave Festival Grand Opening will be held on Friday at Hong Kong City Hall. Its main exhibition will run from Saturday until to November 11, showcasing artworks by various international artists from Canada, China, France, Hong Kong, Italy, UK, USA and more. Admission is free – all are welcome.

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